The invention relates to: consolidating or strengthening unconsolidated or poorly consolidated subterranean reservoir formations; consolidating sand or gravel packs within wellbores; or consolidating masses of propping particles with hydraulically-induced fractures in subterranean earth formations.
Numerous processes have been previously proposed for treating wells with epoxy resin-forming solutions in order to consolidate masses of sand or gravel in or around the boreholes of wells. The I. H. Havenaar and F. Meijs U.S. Pat. No. 3,294,166 proposes consolidations with an epoxy resin-forming solution from which a self-curing partially cured resin is precipitated. The E. A. Richardson U.S. Pat. No. 3,339,633 proposes injecting a relatively concentrated solution of resin-forming components followed by at least an equal volume of over-flushing liquid, which is immiscible with the resin-forming components but is miscible with the solvent for the resin-forming components, in order to provide a treatment that is relatively unaffected by the presence of clay-sized solids within the interstices of the granular mass to be consolidated. The E. H. Bruist, T. W. Hamby, T. A. Simon and R. N. Tuttle U.S. Pat. No. 3,621,915 (and various subsequent patents, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,857,444; 3,867,986 and 3,878,893) propose forming resin-consolidated sand or gravel packs by injecting slurries of particles that are coated with a self-curing, partially-cured epoxy resin (which can be pre-applied or can be adsorbed during the injection) suspended in a carrier liquid having some but limited miscibility with a polar liquid solvent for the resin-forming components.